My Royal Experience At Narendra Bhawan Bikaner Rajasthan I am not an early riser, so I checked with my hosts at Narendra Bhawan Bikaner ” So what time is the breakfast tomorrow?” He just smiled said ” Whenever you want to have it” Puzzled, I looked at him and said, ” But there must be some breakfast time you follow?“ His smile got a bit wider and he said ” Yes, the time for Breakfast here at Narendra Bhawan is when the Guest wants to have the breakfast” That dear reader is the essence of my personal luxurious experience [Continue Reading By Clicking Here…]

Raja Ampat Dive Lodge – Comfort In Lap of Nature Indonesia Before I start my series on my experience Raja Ampat Islands, I want to write about Raja Ampat Dive Resort that was our blissful base during our stay in Raja Ampat Islands Papua, Indonesia. You may wonder, what has happened to desi, he is writing about hotels and resorts now? Yes, you are right, I seldom write about the hotels I stay in for I feel there are better platforms that this blog to read about hotel reviews. I do hope to change that and write more often [Continue Reading By Clicking Here…]

A Dazzling Sound & Light Supertree Show in Singapore Singapore has many surprises and it takes more than a visit to discover some of them. But even in a fast paced city like Singapore, the best way to discover things is to let them unfold to you slowly. While I am all for reading guidebooks and travel blogs before visiting a place, I also love discovering a new aspect of the city, that no matter how popular is something new to me. The Supertree Show at Gardens By The Bay is one such dazzling wonder that I was not aware [Continue Reading By Clicking Here…]

Tales Of An Insomniac – Who Quit Sleep to take Pictures of Lightning As the weather gods continue to show their tantrums and keep on taking the mercury high, just to show their mood swings they decided to shower Guru Gram earlier known as Gurgaon with some thunder, lightning, and showers. Not that I was looking ahead to the thunder, showers, and lightning but I was awakened from the deep sleep by a loud noise. No, the noise was not of thunders, but a thundering Wife Jee, who said, “I think it is raining and lightning outside” Now in [Continue Reading By Clicking Here…]

The Lantern Man and other stories from Jungles of Satpura “It was a dark and stormy night”, those scary lines flashed across my mind as I saw the streak of light moving around in a serpentine fashion towards my cottage. I cursed myself for not remembering Hanuman Chalisa even though my grandmother had tried to teach it to me a hundred times when I was growing. As the light continued to move languidly in my direction, stopping for a moment, and then continuing again the line “”It was a dark and stormy night”, now took me to old Bollywood movies [Continue Reading By Clicking Here…]

Delhi Gets her own Heritage Hotel – Haveli Dharampura They say there were seven cities of Delhi. I say there are 7 cities of Delhi. For I am not talking about the city of Delhi that is now found in history books or in the ruins of forts, that were once cursed by Hazrat Nizamuddin Aulia as Ya Rahe Ujar, Ya Basey Gujar” या रहे उजड़ या बसे गूजर. The patron saint of Delhi was upset with the mighty Emperor because he was diverting laborers from a step well that the saint was building towards the Tughlakabad fort. Emperors, plunderers [Continue Reading By Clicking Here…]

Bangalore Airport at Night Not in very distant past, I had to spend a night at Bangalore airport, not that I wanted to but I had to. I was returning from Singapore, as I was on a sponsored trip by Tiger Air so they have booked me via Bangalore from where they fly to Singapore Changi Airport. I had a layover for 5-6 hours before my connecting flight. Long story short I had an early morning flight from Bangalore or Bengalururro or Bengalorouo or whatever the polishitians politicians have named the garden city, either way, they have screwed up the [Continue Reading By Clicking Here…]

Eiffel Tower Replica in Varanasi to pray for peace and Paris Travel keeps on surprising me, sometimes pleasantly sometime emotionally. I was in Varanasi last week to click pictures of Dev Diwali festival, a celebration to pay respect to river goddess Ganga and a few other Hindu beliefs. As I mentioned in earlier post Dev Diwali festival is the original festival that is now also celebrated in Thailand as Loi Krathong Festival which finds its roots in Hindu and Buddhist traditions. As I walked from Assi Ghat towards Sant Ravidas Ghat where Ganga Mahotsav is celebrated, I saw [Continue Reading By Clicking Here…]

Celebrating Loi Krathong: When The Milky Way Descends To Thailand Loi Krathong or Loy Krathong is a mesmerizing festival celebrated on the full moon of the 12th month of Thai Lunar Calendar. Thousands upon thousands of Krathongs or little floats made of Banana leaves, coconut shells etc. with flowers, with a candle or lamp in the middle. As the thousands of these lamps start floating in the rivers, it seems that autumn sky has come to earth and has made rivers of Thailand its home for a night. As I have observed earlier we Indians and Thais have a [Continue Reading By Clicking Here…]

How To Photograph Karwa Chauth Moon So my experiments with photographing moon continue. Just like last year, this year also the Karwa Chauth Moon played spoilsport and defied all predictions by all the astronomy websites. But partly all the haze and dust in the sky was also to be blamed. Both me and the younger one on moon spotting duty, and were constantly coordinating with building security, Wife jee and various astronomy sites who have predicted moon rise at exactly 20: 22 hours. I was on rooftop much before that trying to figure out from where Mr. Moon will make [Continue Reading By Clicking Here…]